In its latest move targeting civil rights of LGBT people the Trump administration is moving to roll back an Obama-era rule that banned discrimination against transgender people in health care.

The 2016 rule, embedded in the Affordable Care Act, prohibited anti-transgender incrimination by doctors, hospitals and health insurance companies, The New York Times reports.

The Trump administration jumped to reverse the rule after one federal judge in Texas declared it unlawful. The administration could have fought the judge’s ruling, or worked to modify the Obama rule to bring it into compliance with federal law. Instead, it has opted to reverse it.

The agency leaping to reverse the Obama-era rule protecting transgender people is the Dept. of Health and Human Services. Under Secretary Alex Azar, HHS on Friday moved to reallocate $61 million into abstinence-only programs, after the Obama administration brought teen pregnancy to the lowest levels in history.

The Times notes the judge’s ruling came after “eight states, a network of Roman Catholic hospitals and the Christian Medical and Dental Associations, representing 19,000 doctors, challenged the Obama-era rule.” That judge “temporarily stopped enforcement of the protections for transgender patients, saying that Congress had outlawed discrimination based on sex — ‘the biological differences between males and females’ — but not transgender status.”

Almost immediately upon taking office President Trump and his top-level officials have worked to destroy federal protections for members of the LGBT community, especially transgender people. In February of 2017 Education Secretary Betsy DeVos and Attorney General Jeff Sessions rescinded Obama-era guidance that helped schools protect the civil rights of transgender students.

President Trump himself unilaterally declared a total ban on all transgender service members in the U.S. Armed Forces in July of 2017, a policy he created without input from the Pentagon or medical professionals. The Dept. of Justice is still fighting in the courts to enact Trump’s plan.

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Missouri Lawmaker Wants to Make It Easy for Parents to Sue Their Local School if Kids Are ‘Subjected To’ Anything LGBTQ

A Missouri state lawmaker is pushing a bill that would make it easy for parents to sue schools if their children are “subjected to” anything LGBTQ.

Rep. Chuck Basye wants parents to have total control over what their children see in school, even if it’s not part of the curriculum. The bill is in response to a poster a GSA – gay-straight alliance club – put up without getting approval from all the students’ parents.

Basye says the purpose of his legislation “is to give this a little bit of teeth so parents can take action if they feel that they’re not being listened to or their child is subjected to something they don’t agree with,” MissouriNet reports.

“I think the parents have a right to know what is in front of their children in public schools,” Basye told MissouriNet.. “That’s the intent of the bill, nothing more, nothing less.”

“This is not only way too far reaching, but absolutely censorship of essentially livelihoods and existence at all,” Jay-Marie Hill, with the American Civil Liberties Union of Missouri, told MissouriNet. Hill says if the bill becomes law teachers could be responsible, and even fired, if they have a guest speaker who says something parents might disagree with.

The bill is clearly framed to focus on “instruction on human sexuality and sexually transmitted diseases.”

And while it says information presented to students must be “medically and factually accurate,” it also mandates that “abstinence from sexual activity as the preferred choice of behavior in relation to all sexual activity for unmarried pupils.”

I also take so much issue with this idea that people would be denied opportunities to learn… I was a part of two bible studies that met at my public hs, it didn’t stop me from becoming gay. And I turned around represented the Bisexual Gay and Lesbian Alliance… #HB1565#moleg

I am a cisgender, heterosexual woman and the mom of a (likely) cisgender, heterosexual 5th grader. I want him to have access to inclusive and comprehensive sex education. HB1565 is bad for Missouri students. #moleg

Rep Baker says it’s the parents right to opt out of anything regarding the LGBT community if they disagree with it. Ok but whether you “agree with it” or not QUEER PEOPLE EXIST. We are part of history too; you can’t erase an entire community. Call him at 573-751-9781 #hb1565

What I find inappropriate is a legislator that spends his time trying to pass bills that uses the power of the government to treat those most vulnerable like they are lesser human beings, or even worse, that they don’t exist. That they shouldn’t be considered worthy of attention. People have real problems that need solved, and this is how he chooses to spend his time.

Early on Wednesday morning, a Texas Republican Party official took to Facebook to attack the “Log Cabin Republicans,” the GOP’s LGBTQ advocacy arm.

The diatribe, first flagged on Twitter by author and nonprofit director Jessica Shortall, was in reply to a post by former LCR Houston official Marco Antonio Roberts, who was responding to a threat from a member of the State Republican Executive Committee to deny the LCR credentials at the Texas GOP State Convention.

“As a group [LCR] is no longer about an individual participating, but it is an express advocacy group, and the LCR’s unique identity is homosexuality which is in conflict with the principles & platform of the Republican Party,” wrote Sue Evenwel. “The party would also not allow express advocacy groups for murders, burglars, adulterers or fornicators, yet there may be some among us dealing with those issues who are also Republicans working and voting for our candidates.”

Evenwel, the chairwoman of the Titus County Republican Party, is also a member of the State Republican Executive Committee, which is currently grappling with the future of the LCR’s status within the state party.

She is best known for being a lead plaintiff in the landmark Supreme Court caseEvenwel v. Abbott, in which she argued that federal courts should force states to apportion legislative districts using the number of eligible voters, rather than the total population. Such a change would have invalidated nearly all state legislative lines in the country, and forced lawmakers to draw up districts that are overwhelmingly more rural, white, and conservative.

In 2016, the Supreme Court ruled unanimously against Evenwel, holding that states are not required to exclude nonvoters from redistricting — but they also did not explicitly prohibit it, potentially leaving the door open for conservative state legislatures to do so after this year’s census.

Student With Two Moms Banned From Writing Paper ‘Taking a Stand’ in Favor of Same-Sex Marriage

A family in Michigan is speaking out after their daughter, a high school junior, was banned from writing a paper in favor of same-sex marriage for an honors English class where the assignment was to “take a stand” on an issue of great cultural importance.

The teacher, whose name the school district will not release, first said the topic was too controversial and might offend some students. She then confessed she did not want to read or hear about marriage equality, according to MLive and The Advocate.

17-year-old Destiny McDermitt said she wanted to write her paper, which would also be read as a speech, on same-sex marriage because her mothers are married. Angela McDermitt-Jackson and Chris Jackson married in 2015 just months before the U.S. Supreme Court found same-sex couples have the same rights and responsibilities to marriage as their different-sex peers.

The assignment sounds bold, but the teacher made sure it could not be.

“For every generation in every country, every day, there are issues upon which an individual can take a stand,” the assignment description reportedly reads. “This assignment asks you to think about what concerns you in your community, your state, your country, or the world.”

Students were not allowed to choose “anything that is awkward or inappropriate for a school audience.” The topic of abortion was banned, but the school district’s guidance says controversial subjects can have a legitimate place in learning.

Several students wrote letters to school administrators to support their classmate, destiny, and to complain that the teacher said she did not want to read or grade a paper on same-sex marriage.

Destiny has opted to move to a different class with a different teacher.